Cats, Dogs and Dragons
by Sailor Phoenix1997
Summary: AU. The Kaiba brothers and their cat and dog have faced kidnappings, threats and the media but they've never had a challenge like this before. Blue/Mizushipping! Please read and review. Rated to be safe. Summary sucks but please check it out.
1. Chapter 1

**Pheonix: Hello my beloved readers! Pheonix is back with a new story! I wanted to wait until Hunting Hunters was done but I couldn't wait that long! **

**Cerberus: Pheo, what are you doing on your laptop? You're supposed to be out with your mom!**

**Pheonix: Oh Cerberus! I got back quite some time ago while you were napping. And I also want to send an apology out to all you readers who thought I was depressed and drawing circles in the carpet. And thank you readers for reviewing on my other stories. I just want to say that I was not depressed. I was asleep on the couch, after watching T.V. with my brother. Cerberus probably made me sit up in a crouched position so he could get Seto and Kisara to go with it. Sorry about that guys.**

**Kisara: Don't worry. But I think Cerberus has a problem with wanting more reviews.**

**Seto: You think? If I were you Pheonix, I'd make sure the next time he gets something, he has to grovel for it. /Pheonix gives Cerberus Evil Eye/**

**Pheonix: That's a good idea Seto.**

**Cerberus /Cringing and flinching/: Are you sure I'm the Yami?**

**Pheonix: Of course you are! The Yamis come from the Hikaris! It's what happens all the time!**

**Kisara /Sigh/: Let's never be like them.**

**Seto: We won't, trust me. Not unless Pheonix gets that idea for one of her stories.**

**Kisara: I think it's like that in Egyptian Nights. Which reminds me. Readers, please do us a teeny-weenie favor and read and review on Pheonix's other stories. She loves hearing what you have to say on them. A few are a bit cliché, she knows that, but she wants to go back one day and revise them. Once she runs out of ideas, that is. **

**Seto: Let's get on with it.**

**Pheonix: Alright, this is told in different perspectives and we're starting with Seto!**

* * *

_"Are you alright?" I asked as I took hold of her elbow, covered in black clothing. Her entire body was covered in the material. The only things that showed were her long fingernails, a silver band around her neck with a silver cat's head hanging an inch off it, and a pair of blue eyes. She didn't have the pupils of a human though, they were shaped like narrow black slits like a cat's. Her fingernails shimmered in the darkness of the night as she stroked something in her arms that was moving in a black blanket. _

_"I'm alright. He's just making a fuss," she said as she stood up. I followed her example and took hold of her free hand._

_"We'll have to hurry. Once you have a horse, get to the gates of the city and wait for me there." She nodded and looked at the still squirming bundle in her arms. "I promise I won't be too long." Her cat-like eyes looked at me but nodded in obedience. I gave her arm a pull and we raced over the desert sands to a long wooden hut where the smell of horses almost caused me to gag and old and new hay and straw was strewn about. One horse was eating from a pile of the dried grasses and was already saddled and ready to go. _

_I picked the girl up by her hips and swung her legs over the saddle with the black bundle in her arms finally still and slung in a strap over her chest. _

_"Be careful," she whispered._

_"It's not me I worry about," I replied, reaching my hand towards the bundle. My fingers came into contact with a small head and a few tufts of soft hair. "I promise, I'll be there soon. I just have to make sure, our plans weren't discovered." She nodded and gave the horse a hard kick to the ribs, causing it to rear and let out the loudest whinny I'd had yet to hear before taking off in the opposite direction from which I'd come with the girl. _

_I watched as she neared the gates and started to slow the horse. So far, so good. But then I noticed that something was shining in the light moonlight and aiming right for the girl and baby. _

_"Look out!" I shouted as I broke into a run towards them. The girl whipped around and saw the tip of an arrowhead coming right at her. She let out a shriek and turned so the baby was protected by her back. "Run!" I was too far away and the arrow was too fast. Any second now and it would…_

_"And to think, you tried to keep her alive for so long," said a jeering voice as my vision went black. "All that trouble for nothing. You have no wife and no son now. The scum and half-scum have been killed my son." I turned around where I saw the horse, now dead with a dozen arrows sticking out of its body and the girl and baby on the ground next to it. I couldn't tear my eyes away from those of the girl, who stared at me blankly. No light shone in the slit-shaped pupils anymore. The infant in the sling was still and far too silent as well but I couldn't bring myself to inspect the damage. I pulled the girl, now stiff and freezing cold, into my arms and her hood fell away, revealing the long white hair, now stained crimson._

_"Kisara," I whispered. _

* * *

I sat up in bed with a jolt and my hand plastered against my chest where my heart was hammering against my ribs, threatening to break every last one of them. I looked at my clock that read 2:02 am and illuminated a silver paw over the glowing letters. I looked up a little more and saw the luminous blue eyes of my Egyptian Mau. Her eyes had the same slit-shaped pupils as the girl in my dreams. The collar that was carefully wrapped around her neck was silver and had a silver cat's head for the license and Kissa written in spindly letters.

"Did I wake you girl?' I asked. She pawed onto my bed and rubbed her head against my arm. I lay back down and let her rub her face against my cheek. Her short, black-spotted silver fur was soft and ran through my fingers like silk. Her purrs were like a soft lullaby. "I'm sorry Kissa," I said. "It was just another one of those stupid dreams I've been having a lot lately." I rubbed behind her ear. She hummed in pleasure. "Good night pretty kitty," I whispered as I turned over and closed my eyes. I felt her climb over my hips and curl up against my arm. I lifted my elbow and she cuddled under my chin.

* * *

**Pheonix: This is AU and aww, isn't that cute?**

**Kisara: You killed me?! How is that AU and not canon!**

**Pheonix: It was a dream Kisara, and you had cat-like pupils instead of human ones like you did in the anime and manga. Just wait, the story will explain it soon enough. **

**Seto: It'd better. Or else you and I might have a bit of an issue.**

**Pheonix: Anyway, please review! **


	2. Chapter 2

**Pheonix: Alright people, here we are with another chapter!**

**Kisara: Where's Cerberus?**

**Pheonix: Oh, he's in the doghouse, almost literally. I caught him on my laptop last night, trying to write a chapter that was a piece of utter crap with an author's note asking anyone who knew LittleKuriboh to have him take a look at my stories. I am just fine with it if he wants to but not when Cerberus is practically begging him to look.**

**Seto: Making him grovel for anything he wants is starting to look really good, isn't it?**

**Pheonix: I'm considering it and we've got another chapter in Seto's POV. But now, please review!**

* * *

Kissa's tongue was the first thing I was aware of when I woke up. She always licked me awake fifteen minutes before my alarm went off, sometimes I wondered why on earth I kept her in my room but even if I shut the door, I'd always wake up to find her on my chest licking me awake.

"Alright girl, I'm up," I said as I pushed myself into a sitting position. Kissa took a seat in between my legs as I stretched. Honestly, I would've liked to wake up to the annoying buzzing of an alarm like a normal person not to my cat begging me to feed her.

I pulled the covers off and walked over to my closet to get my uniform for school. Kissa slunk out. She always did that whenever I changed. One of the many things about Kissa is; her attitude's almost human. She always left the room when I needed to change, she would sit or curl up at a distance from me when I was in a bad mood, and whenever I worked too hard she'd pounce on my laptop and keep it shut until I left it alone or she'd scratch me.

Moving on from my cat, my school uniform was simple enough: a black or white shirt under a blue jacket that could be left buttoned or unbuttoned and tucked in or not if we so desired, a pair of blue pants and black shoes for outdoors and white shoes for indoors.

I opened my door and smacked something in the face that let out a howl-ish yelp. I looked behind the wood at my little brother's Golden Retriever. I'd bopped the poor boy right on the snout.

"Sorry boy," I said. The dog's brown eyes shone a little. I the right light, I suppose you could say they were gold. Around his neck was a blue collar with a pair of dog tags that read, "Joseph Wheeler" in large gold letters but my brother and I just called him Joey for short. For those of you who don't know, Joseph Wheeler was a general for the Confederate army back during the Civil War. "Where's Mokuba? Don't tell me he's still asleep." Joey's eyes almost widened and he darted back to my brother's room. I chuckled slightly as Kissa walked up to me and rubbed her body against my leg. I picked her up and scratched behind her ear. Kissa and Joey got along well but I was always slightly anxious when they were on the floor in the same room together.

Joey padded into the dining room a few moments later, almost dragging my sleepy-eyed brother by the drawstring of his pants. Mokuba was 14 years old, which was five years under my nineteen, with a wild mane of black hair and dusty violet-blue eyes and slightly darker skin than myself.

"Morning," I said as he took his seat. Mokuba set his forehead on the table as Joey curled up at his feet, waiting for his breakfast. Kissa had already begun to eat a bowl of fish and saucer of milk. She only ate that and hamburger meat but she never allowed a morsel of catnip or Friskies into her system, even if it meant she'd sit right next to my plate all morning and eat nothing.

Kissa pawed Mokuba's ear and he perked up to give her a sleepy glare.

"Not now girl. I'm too tired." Joey turned his head and started licking his master's toes, making the boy kick and sit up straight. "Don't do that you silly dog!" he said as a maid set his breakfast in front of him. Joey just looked at his two bowls as they were set before him. Joey's rather a bit like Kissa; he'd always give us privacy, he'd leave us alone when we needed it, he'd always play with Mokuba and his friends when they came over and he'd only eat human food.

"Enjoying yourself down there boy?" I asked. Joey barked in reply.

* * *

I stepped out of the limo and let out an annoyed sigh. I turned back to the car where Kissa was laying on her side, staring at me expectantly.

"I'll see you in a few hours girl," I said, scratching behind her ear. I turned to leave but she clamped her teeth into my sleeve. She had my lunchbox at her feet. I reached back in and took it. "Thanks." She rolled her eyes and curled up again as I shut the door. She was sometimes that motherly sort of cat other times, she could be annoying like a little sister who never shuts up, and then there's the moments when she's just a normal cat.

I pushed my lunchbox into my black schoolbag and looked around the abandoned yard. I was about fifteen minutes away from the opening bell so I would've expected a few children to be here, but I was alone. I sighed and shook my head. Some people didn't understand the value of time.

"Heyya Kaiba!" I turned slowly and glared dagger at the annoying blonde boy walking up to me. His name's Joseph Wheeler but people call him Joey. He's roughly 16 with blond hair that was never really in any sort of order, hazel eyes that could look gold or red in certain lights, always speaks with a Brooklyn accent and such a horrible grammar that it makes me cringe and he stands at about 5' 10". How do I know that last part? Well, I stand at about 6'1" and he'd three inches shorter than I am, so there.

I ignored him. I normally did. You see, Joey's part of this… Not really a gang but some close band of friends with my rival in school, Yugi Muto. Why we're rivals? That's not important right now.

"Hey! Kaiba, I'm talking to ya!" I continued on my way towards the building.

"I'm not interested in speaking to mongrels," I said. And no, that's not an insult to my dog. Mongrels and mutts are different than pedigreed purebreds like my dog.

"Mongrel?! Seriously Kaiba, can't you think of anything better to do than insult everyone around ya?!"

"Yes I can. I'd much rather be working on something for my company or with my little brother right now but unfortunately, I have to be here until I graduate and associate with half-witted morons like you." That shut him up long enough for me to get into the building and get to class.

Some people might call me a jerk, but in the corporate world, you either bring down everyone around you or get brought down yourself. It's survival of the fittest.

* * *

I sat down on one of the couches at home and rubbed my temples. Wheeler hadn't made my day any easier, neither had my company and the idiot employees I'd hired to work on my new Duel Disk system. None of them could follow the simplest instruction and the entire project had to re-start from scratch for the up-teenth time. It was only a matter of time before I snapped and took the entire project into my own hands.

A warm, furry body moved themselves under my neck and started licking my cheek. I gave Kissa a light tap on the back of her head, letting her leap down and curl up on my arm.

"I'm fine Kissa. Thanks for worrying," I said, moving my fingers down the lines of spots on her back. She purred lightly and licked my fingers before turning around and staring at the door. I looked and there stood Mokuba, dressed in one of his favorite shirts that had white and orange stripes on the arms and a red torso, jeans and sneakers. "What's up Mokuba?"

"You didn't see Joey on your way home, did you?" he asked. Joey always pulled a vanishing act on us. Right after breakfast, he'd go outside and would normally show up in time for Mokuba to be home or for dinner at the latest.

"No, I didn't. But if he's not home by dinner, we'll go look for him. Have you tried calling him from the door?" Mokuba nodded. "Why don't you try again?" He nodded and ran off to do just that. Kissa shook her head and re-settled herself in my palm before loud barking filled the hall.

Joey bounded into the room, practically covered in mud. Kissa leapt up, began hissing and arching her back. That was her warning system to Joey. If he shook that mud and got so much as a speck on her, he'd get scratched. Mokuba walked in with muddy paw prints on his front and lick marks on his face.

"He must've been out in the forest area again." Joey barked and neared me.

"Don't you come near me you silly dog!" I said with a chuckle and raised my hands. No way was I touching that muddy dog. Mokuba walked over and grabbed him by the collar.

"Come on boy, you need a bath!" Joey let Mokuba lead him away while Kissa padded back into my lap and rubbed her cheek on my thumb.

* * *

I felt Kissa moving off the bed later that night. I pushed myself up and watched her slink through the crack in the door into the hall. I checked the clock; 2:00 am.

"What are you up to girl?" I asked as I pulled the blankets off and grabbed my robe. I followed her down the hall. If she heard me, she didn't let it show as she crept into another one of the bedrooms. Mokuba's to be more precise. I tried to look in through the crack but couldn't see anything but Joey's crate where he slept, now empty and heard a light whimpering. I opened the door just a little more and looked in. Joey normally would've jumped on me, making sure I was me and not going to hurt Mokuba but this time, nothing happened.

I pushed the door open and looked around.

A bolt of lightning lit up the room, showing two people, a man and woman on the bed with my brother. The woman was holding his head in her lap and looked up at me with startled eyes. Both were dressed in black clothes with dark hoods covering their heads. The only things really visible on the woman were her pale hands and long, talon-like fingernails.

I turned to flick on the lights but when they failed I looked back, ready to shout, but only saw Joey with his head on his fore paws and Kissa rubbing her head on Mokuba's cheek.

I shook my head.

"Must've been a hallucination," I muttered as I walked over to the bed. Kissa made room for me as I sat down. "Maybe I've been working too hard, eh girl?" Kissa meowed in agreement. "Think it's time for a break?" She rubbed her head on my leg and purred happily. I rubbed her head before picking her up. "Joey," The dog looked up at me, "Keep an eye on him," I said. He let out a huff of agreement and I left.

* * *

**Pheonix: Well, that's as far as my inspiration would get me. I didn't want to get into too much Kaiba OOC-ness and a good thing to get my plot really going!**

**Cerberus: Well, I know that if I walked into your room while you were sleeping and saw two strangers in the bed with you, I wouldn't bother about lights.**

**Seto: This is getting interesting.**

**Kisara: Please review!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Pheonix: Well, here's a brand new chappie! I hope you all love it.**

**Cerberus: Can we get on with it?**

**Kisara: Shut up Cerberus! This is going to be good! **

**Pheonix: Thank you Kisara.**

**Kisara: No problem Pheo. For all you readers, we're going to be staying in Seto's POV until Pheonix says we're in another. Please review!**

* * *

_I looked around but I wasn't in my room at home, but a room nonetheless. The walls were white and the floor made of blue marble. Shelves covered most of the walls and a desk was placed in the far corner. The shelves were covered in books and maps and one was almost bare, save for three glass cases. I stood up from the bed I was sitting on and walked over. My three Blue-Eyes White Dragons stared back at me through the glass._

_"Beautiful, aren't they?" I snapped around but no one was there. _

_"Who said that?" I said. My voice had a sort of echo in this room. Almost like it does when you try to relive a moment of time and an action you just did or something you just said. _

_"You know me." The voice had no echo and it felt so familiar. I'd never heard that voice before in my life except for… _those nightmares!

_"You're that girl from my dreams, aren't you?" I demanded. I started looking around but she didn't appear._

_"True. That was me at one point. But now I'm someone else, but the same nonetheless."_

_"What? Stop with the riddles! Where are we?!" _

_"This is your Soul Room. The physical embodiment of your soul. Judging by what I see, you're almost the same as when we first met. But appearances can be deceiving."_

_"WHERE ARE YOU?!" I demanded._

_"Follow the cold shiver running down your spine." I kept turning, trying to find her. "I'm right here!" I snapped around and a pair of blue eyes with slit-shaped pupils met mine. I stumbled back into the desk. In front of me stood the woman from my dreams, dressed in a black body suit like a gymnast would wear and a hooded cloak over her shoulders. Her eyes were the only thing visible under the dark hood. "Too easy," she said, her voice hadn't lost an ounce of the chilly ice it had carried when she'd first arrived._

_"What was?" I said._

_"Getting in. Most people like you have booby traps at the door of their Soul Room. It was far too easy to enter yours." Her talon-like fingernails seemed to tremble with excitement and she flicked her wrists. Before I could blink, she had two knives in her hands, one finger running down the side of the blade on each and she started towards me. Very, very slowly, like a wild cat stalking its prey. "You need to be ready, the energies around you are getting too intense and soon, everything you know is going to become what you doubt, and what you doubt will become what you know."_

_"What?" She was a step away from me and put the point of her knife in between our faces. _

_"It's time for you to wake up," she said as the knife began to glow._

_"Who are you?!" I asked as I started shielding my eyes as the light began to grow more and more intense. _

_"You already know me."_

* * *

I snapped up and almost threw Kissa from my shoulder to the foot of my bed with the momentum. The silver cat gave herself a shake and gave me a very indignant meow before leaping from the bed to the floor and stalking out the door almost like I'd offended her.

"Cats," I muttered. "Strange creatures that are never really going to be understood."

* * *

**Pheonix: Oh, that was creepy to write! I got the inspiration for that little part from Spider-Man. **

**Cerberus: That was fun, to see Kaiba squirm.**

**Seto: Want to see how I can make you squirm?**

**Kisara: Boys, play nice. And please review! Pheo's getting upset that school's starting in less than 24 hours. But, she doesn't have that long before she graduates and becomes a professional writer.**

**Pheonix: Thank you Kisara. **


	4. Chapter 4

**Pheonix: Here we are everyone! A brand new chapter! Sorry if you think that all of this story is taking place at night but, I can't think of anything for the daytime that wouldn't give away the entire plot! **

**Cerberus: I like this chapter!**

**Pheonix: 0_0 I can't believe my ears. **

**Kisara: Please review while we try to get Pheo out of shock so she can write more.**

* * *

My eyes opened as a roll of thunder erupted outside. A strange noise, like air being slowly released from a tire, came from my nightstand. I turned over, only to find my alarm clock blank.

"Power's probably out," I whispered. I looked around as my eyes adjusted to the darkness and Kissa stood on my alarm clock. It was her making that strange noise.

I felt around for the drawer, where I always kept a flashlight in case of power outages, and clicked on the light. Kissa turned and hissed at me as the beam concentrated on her spotted silver fur.

"What is wrong with you girl?" I asked starting to point the light around the room. She leapt down from the clock and scratched my leg. "Kissa," I warned. She continued to hiss as I looked around.

My heart almost stopped at the sight of what Kissa had been hissing at. In the corner of my room was something shriveled and half my size curled up into a ball. Its flesh was pink but covered in blood-red veins that looked like scratches. It had bat-like wings that covered the head and it was shivering.

"What the heck is that thing?" I asked. It raised its head from the wings, revealing a pig-like face with brown fur around the mouth, fangs pointing into the fattened lips, and large bug-like eyes. It spread the wings, making a wingspan probably as long as I was tall, and cackled.

"You are so helpless!" screeched a female voice. I looked at my lap where the sound had come from, only to see Kissa. "Did I just talk?" she asked. "Dang it!" She turned to the thing in the corner as it raised itself to its feet revealing golden claws almost as long as my forearm and a long tail with a barb at the end. Kissa jumped off the bed and ran right towards it.

For those of you who don't know, Egyptian Maus can run on an average of 36 mph. Anyway.

She leapt from the floor and in mid-jump turned into pure light. I had to turn away and shield my eyes or be blinded.

When I looked back, the hag-thing lay on the ground with a puncture hole in its back and over it stood a girl my age with long silver-white hair, pale ivory skin and blue eyes with slit-shaped pupils, now dilated in anger. She was dressed in a black body suit like one a gymnast would wear that covered her feet and made slight angles on her hands as if the ends were tied to her middle fingers. In her hands were two long knives, each about a foot long. They had jagged sides like an arrow or the barb on the hag's tail and her index fingers were pressed against the flat of the blades.

"Hurry up Seto. We have to leave now!" she said in the voice Kissa had just used. I shook my head in shock and she rolled her eyes. "You really are hopeless," she said in an annoyed tone. I pulled myself out of bed and looked her over.

"You were my cat," was all I could get out of my mouth. She sighed.

"Of course I was your cat!" she said irritated. "Now Captain Obvious, let's get out of here before another one of our _guests _decides to use you for their next meal." She walked over to the door and kicked it down. Underneath I could see a grey-green tail swishing slightly.

I started for the hall but the girl stopped me. Something large and brown flew by and a loud crash echoed down the hall.

"Yea! Take dat! Ya no-good-son-of-a-doll!" shouted a very familiar voice. I looked down the hall, somehow the power had only been out in my room, and standing at the top of the stairs was Joey Wheeler, dressed in a white shirt and slacks. He picked up a small rabbit-like creature with a single eye and a long tail and growled in its face. Further down the hall, Mokuba's bedroom door was wide open.

"JOSEPH!" the girl shouted as she started down the hall. She was anything but pleased as she sheathed one knife and raised the other. "How many times do I have to tell you, stay as close to your charge as possible at all possible times!" she said as she sliced the back of the rabbit-thing and Joey dropped it.

"What is wid ya, Kisara? I am as close as I can be widout wakin' up da poor kid. He's had a stressful day at school with dat new substitute givin' out a pop quiz every other day." Kisara shook her head and touched her thigh.

"The poor kid could be in trouble right now because you left him alone." She turned back to me and threw a small silver object that impaled itself into something right behind me. I turned and there was the brown monster that had flown past my door. It looked like a grizzly with glowing red eyes. In its chest was a ten-pointed ninja star.

I turned back to the two and walked up to them. Kisara shook her head and headed for Mokuba's room, disappearing inside.

"How in the world did you get into my house?" I demanded. Joey started laughing.

"How did I get in? Well, I left dis morning for school, stayed there for a bit, came back home a tad late and Mokuba opened the door, I ran into the living room, you told me not to come near you, Kisara demanded to know where I'd been, and Mokuba dragged me upstairs for a bath before dinner. Dat's how I got in." The realization hit me like a hard slap to the face.

"You were my dog!" Joey doubled over and let out a howl of laughter.

"Finally, ya put da pieces togeda. Yea Kaiba, I was and am your dog. A purebred Golden Retriever and not a mutt!" Kisara came out of the room, dragging a sleepy Mokuba behind her.

"Seto, what going on?" he yawned as Kisara pushed him towards me.

"Honestly, I have no idea." Mokuba nodded sleepily. Kisara gave Joey a hard look and started for the stairs.

"Get them an extra set of clothes, nothing fancy. Jeans and a t-shirt should do just fine for each of them. I'll be getting a car and do _not _take an eternity Joseph."

"Yea, yea," Joey said as he headed towards our rooms. Kisara was half-way down the stairs when she stopped and drew her knives again. She turned half-way towards us and grabbed the railing before flipping herself over it. There was a swish of air and a screech like a bat and then silence. Kisara emerged at the bottom and sheathed her knives up her sleeves.

"If Joey's not back in twenty seconds, get to the garage. We need to leave now." Before I could reply, she was gone. I blinked and started counting the seconds in my head.

"Kaiba! Let's move!" Joey said as he emerged from my room with a backpack, probably Mokuba's over his shoulder. He made a grab for my shoulder but I moved before he could touch me and picked up Mokuba, who fell asleep almost instantly. "Look, I don' like you probably about as much as you don' like me as a human. But I'm your best bet for staying alive now come on!" Where did this guy get off, ordering me?

* * *

Kisara sat behind the wheel of a silver SUV and was drumming her long talon-like fingernails on the wheel.

"Hurry up boys!" she said as we loaded ourselves into the car. For being a cat until a few minutes ago, she wasn't that bad of a driver. It actually felt a lot smoother than some of the rides I'd been in in my time. "You might want to catch some shut-eye while we're moving," Kisara said. Suddenly her voice was firm but in a motherly way. I kept my eyes on Mokuba, sound asleep in my lap until my eyes drooped closed.

* * *

**Pheonix: I know it's short but I wanted it to have a good bit of climax. Please review!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Pheonix: This is way better than what it was before if you ask me!**

* * *

I was aware of the gentle touch of fur under my chin but I forced my eyes to remain closed.

_"It was nothing more than a dream. Animals can't turn into humans and Wheeler was definitely _not _in my house last night. I'm going to wake up, find myself in bed with Kissa and we'll have breakfast like usual and my life will continue with that freakish dream becoming nothing more than a faded memory in the back of my mind," _I assured myself. I slowly let my eyes open and saw Wheeler behind the wheel of the car. In my lap was a familiar Egyptian Mau but she leapt from my lap to the seat next to me. I realized that Mokuba wasn't next to me and looked around for the boy. He was sitting up front with Joey, still asleep.

"Good, you're awake," Kisara said as she turned human. She was dressed in the same clothes as the night before. "Now we can get down to business."

"What?" Wheeler started laughing at the front seat.

"Really Kaiba? You really wanna act that dumb?" Kisara shook her head and sighed.

"Well, Joey's already taken the chance to tell me that you don't believe in magic. I can respect that, but by the time you've finished this little adventure, Kaiba, you _will_ believe that magic is very real and it has more to do with you than you think." I shook my head.

"Unless you've got solid proof it'll be very difficult to persuade me." Kisara smirked, her eyes glowing as if to say "I accept your challenge."

"Seto, do you see any weapons on my person?" she asked gesturing to her gymnast suit. I shook my head again. Faster than I could blink, the girl was holding a ten-point ninja star against my throat, pricking into my skin. There was a small hole in the knee of her suit and when she put the star on her knee it vanished and the hole closed. "And you've already seen Joey and myself turn into our human forms but perhaps not that closely." Before I could say anything she closed her eyes and a pair of silver cat ears popped up on top of her head. Her hair turned the same color with black spots. Whiskers appeared on her face and her hands shrank to paws. Her entire body shrank and her hair covered her limbs, turning to soft fur and whatever was left turned into the tail. In a matter of seconds my cat sat next to me, flicking her tail from side to side.

"Impressive," I said.

"Thank you. Now, Joey and I are from a rare type of human called Humanals. We can change between a human and animal form. From birth we can change that animal until the age of twelve when our animal form will become permanent. But there are cases, rare but not unheard of, when a Humanal will be able to turn into any animal from the same genus. For example: If the Humanal in question could turn into a cat, they could also turn into any feline." Almost instantly Kisara's body began to change again. Her fur turned black and shorter while her body got bigger. In a second a full-grown she-panther sat in the seat next to me. "See?"

"Really Kisara? A panther? Is it necessary to scare the heck outta da poor guy?" Kisara turned back into a teenager and crossed her legs again as she fingered the cat necklace around her throat.

"Those types of Humanals are called Specians. They're extremely rare, like I said, but extremely powerful."

"Sure," I said.

"Be as skeptical as you like Seto, but our race has survived for millennia because of our ability to change and adapt." Her voice was harsh and scolding. I shook my head, not really believing any of this nonsense. Kisara sighed.

"You honestly expect me to just believe all of this?" Kisara huffed, clearly annoyed.

"I mentioned that Specians are extremely powerful, did I not?" she asked examining her fingernails. "It would be quite," Her nails turned to six-inch-long silver-white claws and she started picking her lip with one of them, "foolish to annoy or cross one of them, especially me, saying that I could again turn into a panther but be much less docile."

"Kisara," Joey said in a warning voice. Kisara pulled her claws away, licking away a bead of blood from her lip and forcing her claws to return to normal. "Another thing that's rare is a Humanal with the ability to use magic. Miss Feline here is one of those rarest of the rares. She specialized with lightning and elemental magic." Kisara turned her hand palm up and a light-blue orb appeared in the cup of her hand. The way it moved suggested it was made of water but it looked solid.

She clenched her fist and the orb dispersed, turning into a fine mist in the car, settling on the floor as brown dust; dirt. She picked up a pinch that instantly began to blaze between her fingers until only a black smudge remained but a low breeze soon swept that away as well.

"And that, boy, is the power of the elements. But I also possess much more power." I raised a brow skeptically. She smirked. "Power that if I were to show you in the car, would probably put your brother at risk. I'd wait until we get to the Big House in a few hours. But there is one I can probably show you now." She raised her hand to her temple and stared right at me. _"Yikes, your mind is crowded!" _Her voice rang in my head. _"Your defenses really need to be worked on when we get to the Big House. Geez! That was way too…e_asy," she finished aloud.

"His mind?" Wheeler asked. Kisara nodded.

"Those defenses were about as easy to get through as a sword can cut through a sheet of wet paper. But I can't really blame him. Since Gozaboro fell under my influence showed his true instability, that raining went under the rafters for these two."

"Excuse me?" Kisara suppressed a chuckle, badly if I might add, and looked out the window.

"Nothing. Let's just say that when you were twelve, your step-father received some… Uh… initiative to stop your formal training and allow you to test your business skills. And as you well know, he became less and less stable from there, to the point where he shoved himself out a window when you took over the company." She smiled.

"You made that happen?"

"Human minds are easily manipulated. And yes, I did make Gozaboro change his mind about taking you… Oh what's the word I'm looking for here?"

"Six feet under?" Wheeler offered. Kisara snapped her finger.

"Thank you Joey!"

"Wait a minute, Gozaboro was planning to have me killed?" Kisara nodded. "Why were you even manipulating him in the first place anyway?" Kisara examined her nails again.

"Joey and I were sent to the area to find a pair of powerful magicians that had been discovered there. And thanks to you and your brother we found them." She refused to say anymore on the matter in favor of changing into different forms of domesticated cats from Persian to Siamese, from Maine Coon to Sphinx.

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**Pheonix: Sorry about the chapter that was before this. I thought I'd lost this one and updated my story with that one. Again, so so so sorry about putting you through that torture. It wasn't fair for you. Please review.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Pheonix: Here's to my second anniversary!**

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By the time Joey made a smooth stop Mokuba had woken, Kisara and I had explained everything we could to him, Joey'd almost gotten us hit by thirteen other cars and then there were the five times Kisara had made him turn around to get a turn he'd missed and we'd stopped once so Mokuba and I could change into regular clothes.

"Really Joey, now was that so hard? Honestly," Kisara said exasperated as she leapt out of the car and stretched leisurely. I looked at the building we'd parked in front of. The house was five stories tall and made of pure white marble. There was a wrap-around porch on the ground floor and four glass doors allowing access, two on each side of a pair of heavy oak doors, painted white. There were four balconies on each floor, each one adorned with a single statue and pillars connected each balcony like a fireman's pole.

"Seriously Kisara? You're gonna go into your little Miss-Right's-First-Name-is-Always thing again? Really?" Kisara chuckled.

"Of course!" Her arms dropped and she looked at me as I climbed out of the car.

"What?" She raised one finger and walked very slowly in my direction.

"Don't be scared by _anything_ you see," she whispered once she was shoulder-to-shoulder with me. I raised an eyebrow at the girl and she smirked. Then she leapt, transforming in midair and colliding with a mountain cat as it leapt from the trees. Mokuba shouted and leapt back as the mountain cat shoved Kisara onto her back and the two started rolling until you couldn't tell one from the other.

One was a regular mountain lion with ribs showing through the fur. Its eyes were gold and wild with hunger. The other cat was built like a lioness and had the same tawny fur but was healthy in weight. A pair of long, ivory saber fangs jutted from the top lip and there were two stripes on each of the rear flanks. This cat's eyes were blue, Kisara.

Kisara placed her back paws in the underbelly of the mountain lion and shoved it off. The lion snarled as it landed on its feet and Kisara rose to her own. She gave her head a shake and growled a warning. The lion roared in response and leapt at her. Kisara batted her paw at the charging creature, sending it into the trees. She roared at it and tensed as if preparing to pounce.

The lion hit its head against a tree then grabbed it with its claws and turned, still snarling. Kisara growled and the lion did the same. After a minute, Kisara snapped her teeth and the lion ran off. She turned back into a human and headed back towards the house like what she'd done was perfectly normal.

"What the heck was that?!" Mokuba asked. Kisara looked at him like he was her next target for prey.

"I just turned into a Saber Tooth Tiger. The mountain lion was going around trying to pick fights in order to die because all of his territory has been taken over. Unfortunately this bodes ill for all of us." Before anyone could say anything else, she turned on her heel and headed towards the house, eyeing the windows warily. "A piece of advice, don't say anything when you're in the house until the lights turn on." Mokuba looked at me confused and I shrugged before following Kisara into the pitch-black house.

Once Joey had slowly entered, the doors slammed shut. Kisara sighed, jumped upwards and vanished. The air felt cold and uncomfortable. I let out a puff of air and a slight tinkling noise rang as my breath turned into mist and crystallized before my eyes. A cold chuckle filled the room.

"Alrigh' that's enough! Show yourself if you ain't scared!" Joey shouted. The lights flicked on, almost blinding us for a second.

"Jeez Joey, you're way too wound up," said a boy next to the lightswitch. He was dressed in black leather pants, a black tank top and a black leather jacket. He was barefoot and was leaning on a piece of wood about three feet taller than he was and curved at the top like a crescent moon. His skin was white as snow as was his hair that looked like he'd just rolled out of bed and his eyes were icy-blue. His clothes were dusted with white like he'd just been rolling in powdered sugar or something. He had the look in his eye like he was trying to think of the best way of taking your wallet from you without you noticing for another week.

"You!" Joey said.

"Holy rabies!" Kisara shouted. I looked up and almost gasped at the sight of a blue-eyed black panther hanging upside-down from the ceiling. Her claws let go of the plaster, she twisted and transformed in midair so she landed on her human feet in between the boy and myself.

"Kisara!" the boy shouted. He spread his arms like he was expecting a hug. Kisara just looked at him like he was crazy. After a moment of awkward silence the boy dropped his arms and slung his staff over his shoulders. "Is that the way you treat your brother after not seeing him for four whole years?"

"Jack, it was just this winter."

"You saw my handiwork! Not me personally!"

"Seeing your handiwork is enough to give me a headache Jack. Just these past two minutes have already given me a migraine and I don't even get migraines!" Kisara said rubbing her temple. I looked at Mokuba, who was looking from Kisara to Jack.

"You're Jack Frost!" The boy looked at Mokuba, very surprised, then smiled.

"Well, at least my sister let on who her brother was. Shows that she really does feel proud about being my big sis!" Kisara hit her fist on Jack's head.

"I'd feel a whole lot prouder if you'd lose about 100% less of the annoyance you already cause me!" Jack smirked and shook his head.

"Really sis, you're way too sensitive." Kisara shook her head and sighed.

I turned to Joey.

"Really? You're willing to go _this _far with this joke just to get even with me?" Joey gave me a confused look.

"I'm not doin' anythin' ta get even with you Rich Boy! I've got much better things ta do with my time! Trust me!"

"Now now Joseph." A large hand landed on Joey's shoulder and he instantly stiffened. Kisara did the same only, her stiffness looked like she was trying to restrain herself. The man that had touched Joey was probably a whole foot taller than I was. His black hair was a wild mane, almost like he'd never been introduced to a comb before. He was dressed in a black suit and wore sunglasses over his eyes despite the fact we were inside. His skin was much paler than Kisara's could ever have been. "These are yours and Kisara's charges correct? We mustn't be rude to them, right?" I took a step back. I'd seen Joey go up against people like this and take them out without breaking a sweat. But instead of throwing the man over his shoulder the way I was expecting him to, Joey simply bowed his head so his hair cast shadows over his eyes.

"Yes Alpha, sir." The man, Alpha, patted Joey's shoulder and smiled wickedly.

"There's a good boy," he said. He looked past me and at Kisara. "Kisara! Wonderful to see you again! It's been far too long for me my dear!" Alpha took hold of Kisara's hand and I noticed Jack's grip on his staff tightened. My stomach did a slow summersault and I found myself biting my tongue with a metallic taste in my mouth.

"It hasn't been long enough for me Alpha," Kisara said, removing her hand from Alpha's grasp. "Now, if you'll excuse us, Joey and I need to get our charges settled." She bowed stiffly to Alpha and headed up a set of stairs behind her. "Hurry up boys!" she called. I pulled Mokuba up the stairs and as I passed, I could've sworn I heard Alpha growling almost like he was some sort of wolf or something.

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**Pheonix: Please review!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Phoenix: Hey guys, sorry about taking so long but I lost all my progress because of something stupid in my previous document where I hold my fanfic ideas. But this is a good thing, because it means I can start with fresh ideas. Please review! You guys inspire and encourage me to write more!**

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After the run-in with Alpha, the night of monsters invading my house, and my pets turning into humans I had thought mine and Mokuba's lives couldn't get any weirder…

But I was dead wrong.

The second we stepped onto the second floor, Kisara let out a lioness-like snarl, spun around and punched clean through a wooden door.

"I hate that Mythanal!" she growled out as she retracted her hand and flexed her fingers.

"Mythanal?" Mokuba asked.

"Yep. Dat's what she said," Joey said as Kisara turned away from us and started down the hall.

"What exactly _is _a Mythanal?" I asked. Joey ran a hand through his hair before nodding.

"In Humanal culture, dere's four kinds of transformin' humans: da regular Humanal, da Specian, da Mythanal, and den da Kaamanal. I'm a regular Humanal, which means I can only turn into one animal and in my case dat's da Golden Retriever. You already know what a Specian is, Kisara's a prime example. Den dere's a Mythanal; a creature dat's a lot like a Humanal but dey can only turn into a creature of Myth like a Hydra or a Werewolf, which Alpha is. Finally, dere's a Kaamanal. Dis kind of Humanal is da only one dat can turn into demselves… in a sense. Dey turn into da animal dat most represents deir soul, whether it be a dog or a dragon. Ya pickin' up anythin' I'm puttin' down?" Mokuba put his face into his hand.

"Is there going to be a quiz on all this stuff? Because I kinda get it and I kinda don't." he said. "Is there anyone who can help us understand Kaamanals a little better?"

"I'd introduce ya but…Uh…See da only Kaamanal left alive today is probably takin' a nap or playing hide-'n'-seek or somethin'." Both Mokuba and I arched an eyebrow. "She's a three-year-old, okay? Stop lookin' at me like dat!"

"She's three?" I asked, a twist forming in my stomach. Joey nodded as if he was ashamed.

"Her parents died about five days after she was born in a fire and her older brothers-also Kaamanals-abandoned her in order to become humans." He shuddered at the last word as if it was a bad memory. "It was just nasty. The worst part is…the guy that abandoned her was not only old enough to take her under his guardianship but also-"

"Hey! Are boys coming or what?!" Kisara called from down the hall. "Because I don't know about you but I'd like to talk to the professor before I turn fifty in human years thank you very much!" Joey sighed.

"Alrigh' den, let's get goin' before Miss-Knot-in-my-Gymsuit goes haywire with her knives," Joey said as he started down the hall. I sighed and followed his lead.

Kisara remained waiting outside the door until we caught up with her.

"Is the professor some kind of trainer?" Mokuba asked.

"In a sense," Kisara said, obviously bored as she reached for the knob. "He's more of a bookworm than a fighter. Hence the term "professor" but he's only about our age. And half Humanal."

She opened the door and inside was so dark, for a moment I couldn't see a thing, but soon enough the outline of a desk, a small bed – more like a sparrow's nest – and dozens of bookshelves and stacks of books tucked in every nook and cranny possible, leaving only a space thin enough for a rat to fit through leading from the door to the bed and the desk.

"Where and how does the dude sleep?!" Mokuba asked, looking as if he was about to dislocate his jaw and drop it on the floor.

"Probably six feet under if he's not in here," Kisara said with a shrug and shut the door.

"Kisara!" Joey scolded as she walked right by him. She turned sharply on him and fixed the blond with a hard glare.

"What?" she snarled out.

"What are ya doin'?"

"Going to the training room. What else? That fight last night was more than I expected, I'm way out of shape." Joey opened his mouth to speak again but Kisara drew a knife from her sleeve and pointed it at Joey's throat. "Look, my job was to be Seto Kaiba's protector in the duration of his time at Kaiba Mansion. Now that we're not at the Kaiba Mansion anymore, my job is done so Seto Kaiba is no longer my responsibility. He is the responsibility of whomever chooses to take responsibility for him. You, Joseph, can continue your protection of Mokuba if you so desire but I'm going to take care of someone who was left to me; myself!" She sheathed her knife and turned on her heel and left us.

"Is it just me or does she seem to want nothing to do with my big brother?" Mokuba asked.

"She's just got trust issues is all," Joey explained. Kisara snapped around – probably because she'd heard us saying that she was only a yard or two away – and said something into the room whose door she'd opened.

"Hey Joey! You're so interested in talking to the professor, I found him! Oddly enough, he's not in a coffin yet!" A dark hand shot out of the room and grabbed Kisara by the collar of her suit and lifted her off her feet as a man stepped out of the room. He didn't look much older than me and was dressed in a grey t-shirt and faded jeans. His dark brown hair fell to his shoulders. On the arm holding Kisara, a series of tattoos ran up and down the inside of his forearm and on the other arm, now positioned on his hip, was a pale streak starting from his palm and winding around his arm like a snake and nearly as thick as two of his fingers.

"Would you cut that out Kisara?" he demanded. Kisara pulled out her knife and pointed it at the boy's nose.

"Put me down Mahad. You're not intimidating anyone." The boy – Mahad – groaned and set Kisara down. The whitette brushed off her front before disappearing into the room. Mahad's gaze followed her then turned to us. The way he stared at us was as if one of us had just slapped him in the face with a fish. He stumbled forward until he was only a few feet away.

"I thought she was joking," he breathed looking at all of us.

"Hey man! Snap out of it!" Joey yelled, slapping the boy on the arm. He looked at Joey as if he'd just noticed he was there. "I mean I know Kisara and I don't normally visit but there's no reason to stare! You've known me since we were kids." Mahad gave his head a quick shake and ran a hand through his hair sheepishly.

"Sorry Joseph, it's just that he looks an awful lot like-" Kisara reappeared in the doorway and started snapping her fingers for Mahad's attention.

"When's Mana's training session done?" she asked snappishly. Mahad looked confused.

"She should be coming out now," he replied.

"Well, the door's not opening and the simulation's not coming to an end. It actually looks like it's just getting started." Mahad sighed loudly and turned back to the girl.

"Alright. I'll see what's going on. In the meantime, Joey, why don't you get these two some rooms for their stay?" Joey shrugged.

"Sure, man. You just fix that little problem." Mahad waved him off as he vanished into the room. Kisara spared one last glance at us and my stomach did another slow flip when she locked eyes with me. She almost looked scared. Before anyone could say anything, she turned and followed Mahad into the room, the door sliding shut behind her.

"She seems colder than last night," Mokuba said. Joey shrugged again.

"She gets like dat sometimes. It's a mystery dat may just nevah be solved," he said as he started up another flight of stairs. "Are you two comin' or what?" Before I could say anything Mokuba jumped in.

"We'll be a second. I think we just need to talk," he said. Joey looked from him to me then back before heading up the stairs. Mokuba turned on me with a hard look similar to one I'd give him when I was scolding him. "What's wrong with you?"

"What?"

"They save our lives last night and all you can do is stand in the background acting like Mister-Big-Shot-Statue-Cold-Kaiba? Newsflash: Apparently these people have not only _had _hard lives, they're still living them!"

"What has gotten into you?" I demanded. Not once had Mokuba ever yelled at me like that.

"I don't know, maybe it's the idea that there's a three-year-old in this house whose parents died before she was a week old and her brothers abandoned her! Maybe it's just the stress of last night! I don't know! All I know is that I'm ticked off about something I just don't know what!"

"You two scream loud enough to wake the dead." I nearly jumped out of my skin as I turned around to face Jack Frost, ice was starting to form at his feet and his breath came out in slow, white clouds showing that the air around him was freezing cold. How had I not noticed his arrival?

"How did you do that?" I demanded.

"I walked up here? No one really wants to be around Alpha after Kisara comes home."

"No, I mean how did you get up here without me detecting you? Judging from the ice at your feet and the sight of your breath, the air around you is below freezing point."

"About thirteen below, to be specific. And about your first question, I don't know. You tell me."

"Statue cold," Mokuba said. I looked over my shoulder at him to see him leaning against the wall with his hands behind his head. Jack started shaking his head and rolled his eyes.

"Where's my sister?" he asked. I opened my mouth to speak when a high, shrill scream sounded from the room where Kisara and Mahad had gone.

"What the heck was that?!" Joey demanded as he came down the stairs. Jack slammed his palm against the door and instantly the door made a noise akin to shattering glass as it crumbled into icy pieces on the floor. The boy and Joey leapt over the small pile and into the room.

My stomach did a slow flip and my body was in motion before I even realized it. I stepped over the pile of ice and into what seemed to have been a room made with glass walls saying that now glass covered the hard metal floor and large, jagged pieces stood around the floor in the shape of a room about six by twelve with a large metal box that was blackened with soot in a starburst shape in the middle that left it smoking and reeking of something like rotten eggs.

Outside of where the glass wall had been was a huge forest. Where the ceiling should've been was a huge sky coated in black clouds. The smell of a storm was becoming stronger by the second. The trees were nearly as thick as I was but whatever had happened made them bend nearly in half away from the shattered glass.

I don't know how, but all this made me unsettled. I stepped over what remained of the glass wall and began running through the trees. Somehow, it all seemed familiar. Soon enough the trees became more scarce and the pine needles on the ground were replaced with track-covered mud. Some were obviously feline and canine. Next to a fallen, hollowed-out log was a gray t-shirt and faded jeans, tossed away with jagged claw marks crisscrossing the chest with what looked like blood lining the claw marks and splattered over the jeans.

A loud series of barking and feline howling made me abandon the clothes and take off in the trees again.

The feline howling turned to yowling and the canine barking turned into a long howl, both becoming louder as I ran. Suddenly, I tripped, sending myself to tumble down a shallow ravine with a steep hillside. Out of instinct, I turned so my side took the brunt of the fall, sending me down the side of the ravine and into a shallow stream without too much injury.

Immediately, I sat up and wiped the water from my face just before a loud roar, neither canine nor feline, ripped through the air over the howling and yowling. In that instant my stomach seemed to drop, the kind of feeling one would get when plummeting down a rollercoaster and the next thing I knew, I was standing behind a tree, hidden by the shadows. I shook my head and tried to remember how I got there when a jackal flew through the air and struck the tree in front of me. It let out a yip before falling into the ferns at the base of the tree.

I almost chocked in my own breath as the jackal began to transform. Very slowly, the fur turned to shoulder-length brown hair and the tiny body turned into Mahad. I took a step forward to see if he was alright but pulled back.

"_What's wrong with me?! I found his clothes by that log, meaning he's probably…No. No. No. I am _not _thinking that!" _I thought furiously.

"MAHAD!" The voice matched the one that had screamed before Jack had destroyed the door to this place. I turned and peered past the tree…only to wish I hadn't.

Kisara's clothes were reduced to a pair of small black shorts and a small shirt with a low V-neck, sleeveless and ending just under her breast line, now it was impossible to not notice a long, spiraling, black line on her right arm and a series of tattoos on the inside of her left forearm. Joey was in his canine form but his coat was matted with blood and he was making an attempt not to put his left front paw on the ground while leaping around. Jack stood behind Joey, a few trees around them had already felt Jack's icy rage. The boy's eyes were narrowed and his lips curled back somewhat to reveal his teeth. His arms were stretched outward and his staff was aglow with white light, a few snowflakes falling with every tremble of Jack's hand. The last creature was a small orange fox, a vixen to be precise. She was trotting towards Mahad and myself, her bushy little tail bouncing as she neared.

But none of that was why I regretted looking. Actually, Kisara's new style in clothing made me wish I'd come a little sooner.

The lot of them were fighting against a huge, black…thing. It was shapeless, like something a pre-schooler might make out of Play-Doh but it had white eyes near the top, the edges of the eyes weren't too definite, as if the creature was made of smoke.

Suddenly the creature swung an arm at Kisara, who flipped into the air and her knives appeared…from her wrists. That instant I knew this creature wasn't made of smoke because right where Kisara had been standing was a huge depression in the earth as if a huge tree had landed there and had recently been removed.

The vixen leapt over a nearby fern and quickly padded over to Mahad.

"Mahad, wake up," she whispered before she started licking his cheek.

Kisara landed on the creature's shoulder in a crouch and immediately began flailing her arms down at the creature while releasing her knives, letting even more of the barbed weapon fly out but where the knives had ended, the rest of the barbs seemed to move like chains or a whip. The creature roared and swung up at Kisara. Immediately she leapt upwards and did a backflip so her head faced the creature and she landed just in front of me.

With a jerk of her arms, her knives snapped back into her arms. She turned around and stared at me as if I'd caused this.

"What are you doing here?!" she hissed behind clenched teeth. "This is not for pompous human boys to-"

"Kisara! Look out!" screamed the little vixen as she moved to cover as much of Mahad with her own little body and tail as possible. Kisara and I snapped around to see the creature swing at us again but Kisara threw her hands up and a bright blue light shot from her hands and expanded in the air until a dome appeared over herself, Mahad, the vixen and myself.

The creature's arm slammed into the dome and it yanked the appendage back, roaring as if the little light show had been a plank of nails but it had done its own damage as well. The dome now sported a series of cracks as if it was a giant egg about to be broken for something. Kisara hit her knees, still holding her arms in the same position she'd used to start the dome in the first place. Beads of sweat were rolling down her face and neck and her breath was coming in slow, deep breaths as if she was trying to keep herself from panicking.

The vixen trotted over and placed a paw on Kisara's leg.

"Kisara, you can't keep this up, you'll expend your energy! It's too dangerous!" Kisara glared at the vixen.

"Well Mana, if there was a capable and conscious Shadow-weaver around here, maybe I wouldn't have to do this."

The creature released another roar and hit the dome again, spreading the cracks further and this time making Kisara scream as if she'd just been struck. Jack was shooting large icicles at the back of the creature and Joey was attacking it furiously during the intervals where Jack was crafting another, but the creature barely seemed to notice them as if they were flies.

The creature raised its arm again.

"_If that thing hits us we're dead!" _I thought. I turned to yell a warning to the others but the creature hit the dome before I could utter a sound, shattering the dome and sending Kisara flying through the air until she hit a tree and came crashing back down in a heap. My hands instinctively raised, waiting for the crushing that would end my life…

But it never came.

I looked up.

The creature's arm had stopped in midair but not of its own accord. Something was stopping it. The creature began to struggle to release its arm and a slight tugging pulled at my stomach. I dropped my hands a little and the creature roared as it was flipped upside down, held in the air by thick, black cable nearly the thickness of an Anaconda. By instinct, my hands flipped palm up and the cables stretched so the creature's limbs were pulled in separate directions. Again my instincts took over and my right one shot downwards while my left flipped itself over and shot upwards. The creature roared one last time and then exploded, every last part, melting into the shadows of the trees, most of it falling into my own shadow.

Everyone started looking at me like I'd just pulled the pin out of a grenade. I turned around and locked eyes with Kisara, who immediately turned away so her bangs covered her eyes.

"What just happened?" I asked.

"You just revealed that you're a Shadow-weaver," Mahad said as he sat up behind the fern and picked up the vixen and started stroking her fur.

My stomach did three more flips and the next thing I knew, I was staring at my own vomit on the ground.

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**Phoenix: Well, that's all for now. Hope you like and please review!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Phoenix: Now then, this is highly overdue. I finally got some plot for this story! Please review!**

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After all the insanity I'd been through in the past 24 hours alone, it almost felt unreal to be sitting in a bar with Kisara. Joey had suggested it after my little experience in the simulation room.

Kisara had changed from her black clothes to a teal-green dress that looked like it almost came out of the Roaring 20s. The lace top had buttons down the middle to her waist where a tan belt sat securely then the dress became a see-through fabric covering the slip underneath that was attached to the dress. Green and gold bangles rattled on her arms when she moved. Near-white green and teal stones made flower designs in the earrings she wore that dangled to her jaw. She'd put on make-up that gave her eyes a sort of smoldering, smoky appearance. And a silver ring with a single ruby jewel glinted in the strobe lights that shot around the bar to the beat of some sort of loud music where the musicians were screaming to the point no one could understand them.

Kisara tossed her hair out of her face and took a sip of the amber-colored drink she'd ordered. Although she'd ordered for both of us, I hadn't heard what she'd said over the music and didn't exactly trust her to chose a drink that wouldn't intoxicate me.

Kisara eyed me then my still-full glass.

"_Why don't you have a drink?" _she asked telepathically. I shuddered. One of the things I was going to have to get used to around her.

_"Would you take offence if I said I don't trust you to not intoxicate me with whatever the heck this is?" _I thought back. Kisara rolled her eyes and shook her head before her eyes locked on something just beyond my shoulder. I looked.

Standing up from a couple booths back was a dark-blonde-haired boy with beady little eyes, staring right at Kisara like she was a meal. He was dressed in a black shirt and tight black pants and what looked like a cobra-skin jacket. The boy smiled, the points of his incisors pricking the skin of his bottom lip. I turned back to Kisara, only to see she was standing up already and gesturing with her finger for the boy to follow her.

I looked back at the boy who was starting over our way.

"_What do you think you're doing?" _I asked mentally, only to receive no answer from Kisara so she'd either stopped using her powers or she was just ignoring me.

"Well, well, well," hissed a cold voice over my shoulder, a vaguely Arabic-sounding accent touched his English. "What have I found tonight?" he asked. Kisara stepped back, putting the booth next us in between her and the boy, batting her eyelashes like a schoolgirl with a crush.

I felt my hand twitch.

"Why…Me?" she asked, using a higher pitch in her voice and pointing to the tip of her nose. The boy chuckled and moved closer to her, slamming his hand on the wood between the booths so Kisara sat/lay on the leather. The boy's grin turned feral and I felt my nails digging into my skin.

"Of course, pretty little viper. Whom else is there to refer to?" he said coldly. Kisara stood up, pressing herself flush against the boy and started drawing designs on his chest with her fingertip, still batting her eyelashes.

"Well, I think you've caught a dance…if you ask really nicely of course," she said coyly. I pinched the bridge of my nose and shook my head. The boy chuckled and leaned into Kisara's ear.

"Care for a dance? Just the two of us?" I could've sworn I heard him hiss that last part out. Kisara giggled, another schoolgirl-like habit, and kept batting her eyelashes.

"I'd be honored," she said. The boy wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her onto the dance floor.

I sighed and reached for my drink, to find it was almost half-gone. I wiped at my mouth and felt something wet on top of my lip but by the smell it wasn't saliva.

_"When did I take a drink?" _I asked myself. I glanced back at Kisara and her little "interest" and noticed that his hand had moved from around her waist and was now gripping the excess of her belt. A tiny glimmer of metal shone in the strobe lights. It was the clasp to her belt. His other hand was pressed against her back so her chest was pressed right against him. My hand tightened around the glass as I looked at Kisara's face. She looked like she was trying to hide pain with a smile. _"That snake in the grass!" _

Both my hands became fists as I stood up from the booth and walked over to the two. I grabbed the boy's shoulder and whirled him around.

"Sorry kid, but this is a man's job," I said with a low growl. It sounded more like a snarl when I heard it myself. The boy bared his teeth, twisting Kisara's belt in his hand until she grabbed his wrist. He looked at her and I did the same. Her grimace-smile was now a smirk like she was saying, "_Gotya!" _

A flick of her wrist, and the boy's arm was twisted sharply but there wasn't even a creak of bones, he did release her belt though. Kisara narrowed her eyes, parting her teeth and making a hiss like a cat. The boy wrenched free of our grasps and slipped back…No, _slithered. _Where his legs should've been was one long golden-tan snake tail. He smirked and swung the tail, instantly, the music stopped and people began screaming as they made mad dashes for the exits and the normal lights came on.

The boy opened his mouth, revealing his two rows of teeth had become a pair of fangs, pointed and slightly curved. His pupils became his eyes, clouding out any other color. His clothes fell to the floor as the rest of his body grew scales and with a loud ripping noise, a huge fan of scales appeared on the back of his head, covering his back to where his body became serpentine.

"King Cobra!" Kisara hissed.

"How foolish of you! Falling into ssssuch a trap!" the Cobra hissed. Kisara unsheathed her knives from her wrists, her bangles flying up her arms to her biceps as she gripped the blades.

"How do you know I wasn't baiting a trap for you?" she asked with a smirk.

"What are you doing?" I asked. Her smirk broadened.

"I plan on making His Royal Scalyness need to re-grow his next skin early." The cobra hissed and an instinct took over before I knew my body was in motion. I grabbed Kisara's arm and pulled her over my shoulders and she somersaulted down my back, letting me flip over her, grab her hips and landing in a crouched position with Kisara holding onto my shoulder and the King Cobra's fangs embedded in the dance floor wood.

Kisara pulled away from me a little, staring at me like I'd just slapped her. I was about to demand what she was looking at me for when the King Cobra let out a roar and ripped his teeth out of the floor, pulling up the whole floorboard, nails and all.

I felt Kisara grab onto my shoulders and pull herself over then pull me over her head so we were doing some sort of two-person cartwheel. Once I was back on my feet, I twisted my arms in such a way that sent her into the air. Kisara grabbed onto her skirt and when she pulled away, she held a long whip in her hand with a number of ninja stars threaded on. With a snap of her whip, the stars turned into deadly metal rain that…

Bounced off the snake's skin like they were paper airplanes.

Kisara landed in a crouch next to me and her whip wrapped itself back into her skirt and she snarled. I grabbed her arm and pulled her up to me.

"We have to get outside! That thing's no snake!"

"What do you-" She grabbed hold of my shoulder and pulled me towards the door.

My shoulder hit the metal with enough force I knew it was going to be bruised in the morning. Kisara cursed and hit her fist on the door when it wouldn't open, her eyes gaining a spark like lightning. I looked back at where we'd left the snake, only to see him maneuvering through the stars that had embedded on the floor, hissing in anger.

"There's no other way out!" Kisara said as she kicked the door. I cringed a little at the resounding tone.

"And our little friend just got free of the little minefield you set up for him," I warned. Kisara snarled.

"Stupid cat instincts! Why is it that I always have to pick fight with snakes of all things!?" she screeched. I looked back at the snake now coming at us.

"Argue with your instincts another time kitty-cat! We gotta get out of here!" Once more, Kisara looked at me like I'd slapped her. "What?!"

"You just-"

"DIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" screamed the snake as he lunged forward. My own hand shot forward and twisted. The snake's body became enveloped in pulsing tendrils of black shadows.

_"Second time today," _I thought. The snake roared and started thrashing. A burning sensation began racing up the bones in my forearm. "Anytime you want to jump in with some experience?!" I demanded. Kisara shook her head, whatever shock she'd had vanishing as she focused on the ceiling.

"Throw him away and blast the roof off this place," she said.

"And how exactly do you propose I do that! I don't even know how I'm doing this!" Kisara rolled her eyes.

"Not you, me! When I jump, let him go and I can handle it from there. Don't come close until I blast off the roof." Without waiting for a response, Kisara crouched on all fours, turning into a saber-tooth tiger and charged the snake with a loud roar, making me drop the snake in surprise.

Kisara sunk her fangs into the snake's back and used her weight to knock him over. She shook her head, in turn shaking the snake like a rag doll as his screams reverberated off the walls, making my ears ring sharply.

Kisara turned back into her human form with her knives buried where her fangs had previously been. She retracted one knife, splattering blood on her face and clothes, and lifted the snake above her head. The creature thrashed, hissing and trying to get a good grip on her with his tail. The whitette chuckled darkly as she dropped the snake so he was at her hips before spinning around in circles and threw him, dizzy and confused, against a stone wall, which cracked under the force of the body hitting it.

Kisara threw her hand up and a bolt of lightning shot from her palm and blasted the ceiling. Bits of plaster and wood fell to the floor but none were large enough to cause any damage. She looked over at me then at the snake.

"Hurry up slowpoke," she chastised. "I don't want to be around here when that Shadow gets his senses together!" I snapped myself out of my daze and ran over to Kisara. She threw her arms around my neck once I was in range. "Hold on tight," she breathed into my ear.

I had a split second to react before I felt the floor vanish from under my feet. I gripped tightly to Kisara, only to find a pair of white, familiar wings were sprouting from her back and the bar was at least thirty feet below us and growing further away.

"I told you to hang on tight. I hope you pay attention this time, cowboy," Kisara said as she kicked me into the air and wrapped her arms around my chest. "Now let's go home." I shook my head, trying to get my head straight from everything I'd just encountered that night, when I noticed someone was standing on the building across the street from the bar, in front of a neon light so all that was there was their silhouette against the light. I looked back down and took particular notice of the fact that the hole Kisara had made with her lightning was in a starburst pattern.

* * *

Kisara lowered me gently onto the roof of the Big House before collapsing on the roof herself, panting for air. Her wings couldn't even hold themselves up, she was so tired. I thought struck me as I knelt down in front of her: She could've gone home, where it was safe, and she didn't have to be so tired if I hadn't been there or if I'd handled things at the bar differently.

"You know, I knew that guy was a snake to begin with," Kisara said as she pushed some of her bangs out of her face. "I didn't need you to get in my way."

"You needed help and that guy was going to try suffocating you with your own belt. What was I supposed to do?"

"Stay out of my way! What else? It's feline nature to hunt and battle with snakes! We're mortal enemies meaning snakes kill cats, cats kill snakes. Reasons lost after thousands of years!" Kisara shouted as she pushed herself to her feet, stretching her wings as far out as she could, as if she was trying to intimidate me.

A part of me wanted to tell her that I didn't care about some ancient feud between cats and snakes, but the way the moonlight shimmered off her wings similarly to heat waves off a hot car caught my attention and chased away whatever argument I wanted to make. The gentle slopes and curves, interrupted only by a single fold in the middle and the skin covering the bone that held up the thin pale-blue membrane that allowed her to fly were just like those of the holograms I'd created of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon. Thin lines of webbing, veins probably, were visible through the membrane.

"What do you think you're staring at?" Kisara asked as she pulled her wings closer to herself a little.

"Your wings are beautiful tonight," I said truthfully. And it felt good. I knew I didn't have to act like I was someone else, and I knew I could trust this girl. Kisara looked at me like I'd just offered her rotting fish for a meal.

"What?" I pinched the top of her wing between my thumb and forefinger, giving it a tiny shake.

"Your wings look nice with the moonlight coming off them like that. I wonder if anyone's ever tried taking a picture of it like that." Kisara continued to stare at me like I'd lost my mind. I felt myself smile…Not smirk, not grin, a legitimate, heartfelt smile.

"You know, I never really believed in the idea that if you stayed out under the full moon, you'll go insane. But I think you have." I laughed. It was the same feeling I'd had with the smile and my telling of her beautiful wings.

"I don't think so," I said with a shrug. Kisara raised an eyebrow.

"Are you on some kind of medication I don't know about?" I shook my head.

"Just feeling like I can actually be myself for once," I said. And once again, my body was in motion and before I noticed it, I was kissing Kisara!

Don't get me wrong, it wasn't bad at all. But I was half-surprised with myself, half-surprised she actually let me do it. I might've lost my actual sane mind or just opened a part of myself I'd never known or had forgotten about, but right there, I didn't care.

Kisara wrapped her arms around my neck and her wings around us like some kind of shield. My hands lowered itself from her face to the back of her neck and the small of her back. She made a light squeal in the back of her throat when I pulled her closer.

Hesitantly, my tongue prodded at her lips and she opened her mouth, her own tongue invading mine.

A single thought passed over my mind about that; Would I cough up a hairball later?

Kisara moaned a little and leaned a bit closer and the thought left my mind like animals fleeing a forest fire. To heck with it, I could cough up a million hairballs for all I cared at that point. I pushed my tongue into her mouth, her own tongue wrapped around mine and her arms tightened as if she never wanted to let go.

The only thing that came to my mind at that second was this one perfect moment.

* * *

**Phoenix: What do you think? Teens actually being teens! Wow! That's a first for me! Ya likie? Please review! **


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